Millions of patients throughout the United States suffer from chronic wounds associated with diabetes, vascular disease, obesity and other health concerns. That number continues increasing, giving rise to the need for expanded training of wound care specialists.

More than 150 people signed up to attend the conference. We sat down with medical director of the St. Vincent Wound Healing Center Dr. Gary Ostahowski who explained the importance of this conference held in the Magic City.

"We want to raise awareness of chronic wounds and the fact that there is help available to heal chronic wounds," Dr. Ostahowski said. "Especially in diabetics, paraplegic, quadriplegics that have all kinds of different chronic wounds."

Dr. Laura Shin has gained attention for her groundbreaking research in cellular biology to treat non-healing ulcerations

. She attended the conference as one of the featured speakers.

"I spoke a little bit about translational medicine and looking at how different activities in the lab and different research in the lab is fueling a lot of our advanced tissue products," Dr. Shin said. "I also spoke about stem cell biology."

Dr. Ostahowski said the Wound Healing Center sees about 7 thousand patient visits a year. As of December 2018, 4 of 5 certified wound care physicians in the state of Montana currently work at St. Vincent Healthcare.

The wound care conference is a 2 day event that wrapped up today. For the third consecutive year, St.Vincent Healthcare Wound Healing Center has been recognized as a center of excellence from healogics. This recognition is only offered to the top ten percent on healogic centers.